How Oxford grooming gang forced girls as young as 12 to have sex with hundreds- & police labelled them ‘prostitutes’

A WOMAN who was sexually abused as a child by an Oxford grooming gang has said she still sees men she was forced to sleep with roaming the streets freely. “A shop, a petrol station, a restaurant – everywhere you can imagine – you’ll see a man that’s done something,” the victim said in a BBC Panorama documentary, Grooming Gangs: Why Were We Ignored?, which aired this week. Three women who were sexually abused by grooming gangs as children have opened up about their horrific ordeals Credit: Getty BBC journalist Ellie Flynn spoke with victims of the Oxford grooming gangs Credit: BBC Rachel, not her real name, estimated that she was abused by “hundreds” of men in Oxford from the age of 12, but claimed her attempts to tell the police about the abuse at first fell on deaf ears. Despite its reputation as being one of the world’s most beautiful cities, Oxford was home to a prolific grooming gang, mostly operated by older men of Pakistani heritage, between the 90s and late 2010s, according the the BBC. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! The Oxford Bullfinch trial, which took place in 2013, revealed the systematic grooming, trafficking, and rape of six young girls in the city over an eight year period, and led to a series of follow up investigations in other parts of the country. The 2011 investigation which led to the trial exposed a web of abusers, mostly of Pakistani heritage, who were targeting and exploiting young, predominately white girls throughout Oxford. Rotherham, Rochdale, Oldham and Bradford are among several sites with prominent sexual abuse scandals, many dating back decades. Police investigated from between 1998 and 2011, though it’s now thought that some victims’ abuse started even before then. Rachel was just 12 when she was befriended by gangs in Oxford. “They gave me cigarettes, showed an interest in my life,” she recalled during an interview with BBC journalist Ellie Flynn. Most read in The Sun What started off as a friendly interaction in the street became three years of horrendous physical and sexual abuse spanning three years between 2004 and 2006. “We were mostly taken to these bedsit type places. [They were] horrible, dingy, nasty,” she recalled. Akhtar Dogar, left, Anjum Dogar, right, were part of the Oxford sex grooming gang and convicted of rape in 2013 Simon Morton, former acting detective inspector at Thames Valley Police Credit: BBC By the time she was 13, she was trapped in a cycle of sexual abuse and drug addiction. At the time, she had been referred to social services and was living between her family home and in care. During this time, Rachel said she was trafficked to other cities around the UK, where more men paid the gang for sex with her. Rachel reported the abuse to her social worker but said she was not taken seriously. “It was written down that I was manipulative and that I was enjoying the attention that I was getting,” she said. “There are literal sentences in my files that say I was fantasising. Even though you’ve got a child covered in cigarette burns that have gone septic.” On one occasion, she described going to the police with her mum. “I was actually bleeding through my bottoms. My mum came. She was very clear with the police that the blood had to be the result of something pretty horrendous.” However, the police did not respond as she hoped. Rachel was just 13 at the time she claimed the police accused her of being a prostitute. “They said, ‘if you’re going to carry on prostituting yourself, then this is going to be the outcome isn’t it?’” “A 13-year-old can’t consent to sex and they certainly can’t make a decision to prostitute themselves,” Rachel said. Ellie Flynn spoke to victims, whose identities remain anonymous Credit: BBC Two of the victims claimed the police referred to them as ‘prostitutes’ Credit: Getty She even claimed a police officer asked her for oral sex while in the car with them, which she refused, the incident further deteriorating her faith in social and police services. Her records show dozens of occasions when she reported instances of abuse, including giving the names of offenders. She said she was even discovered with her abusers by the police on some occasions. One time they were arrested but Rachel dropped the case in fear. “I thought that would be where it ended for me because no one was doing anything to help me or the other girls,” she said. Thames Valley police were informed about the gang’s operation in 2006, but victims accounts show the men were still abusing girls three years later, the documentary said. One of those was Chloe, not her real name, who, prior to the documentary, had only told “a handful of people” her abuse. She claimed she was assaulted by a man at an after school club aged 13. Chloe, now in her 30s, was later drawn in by grooming gangs and went on to suffer years of abuse. After meeting gang members who initially appeared to be her friends, they started asking her to return their generosity with favours. “They’d try and give you money or they’d pay for things and then it would quickly turn into, ‘you owe us something’,” she said. “They’d pick us up and they’d be this random old man in the car and we’d go to this flat, for example.” There, Chloe would be plied with alcohol and raped. “I think, to be honest, they preferred it when you were paralytic,” she said. She believes her abusers were aged between 20 and 60. “It was people I’d have never had anything to do with,” she said. “There were a few times I’d say, I don’t want to do it, and that’s when they would just be really scary.” Chloe never told the police about what had happened to her. She said: “I didn’t understand what was happening completely… How I felt about myself was so low that I kind of just accepted that situation.” In 2011, Thames Valley police launched an investigation. Using surveillance, they soon uncovered the extent of the gangs evil operation. Speaking in the documentary, Simon Morton, former acting detective inspector at Thames Valley Police, called the gang’s scheme a “money-making business.” Chloe was 15 and still involved with the abusers when police identified her as a potential victim during their investigation in 2011. She told officers that the men would have sex with, physically abuse, and threaten her and other victims. However, she still felt some officers didn’t see her as a victim. She said: “They were saying we were all prostitutes… How can a kid be a prostitute? But if the police are saying it you start to believe it about yourself. “You’re a kid, but you’re being treated like an adult because of the adult things that have happened to you.” Chloe chose not to go through a police investigation or give evidence against her abusers Meanwhile, it wasn’t until she was 15 that Rachel broke free from her abusers, and it was in 2011 that police approached her to help. She agreed and gave evidence in the Bullfinch trial at the age of 21, including having to face nine defence barristers of the accused men, who “scrutinised” and “shamed” her “whole life”. Seven men were found guilty. Akhtar Dogar, Anjum Dogar and Kamar Jamil were found guilty of rape, conspiracy to rape and arranging child prostitution for the crimes against Rachel. A third woman, called Sarah, not her real name, spoke about how she was targeted by grooming gangs in the 1990s at the age of 11. In the years that followed her abuse, Sarah suffered heavily with drug addiction, which she claims is the result of being introduced to drugs at an early age by groomers. She said: “At first, it’s ‘do you want a cigarette?’ but you don’t know what you’re heading for. Some of the cigarettes they were giving us had brown stuff coming out of it. It was laced with heroin. “My addiction, through my whole life now, has resulted from them giving us those cigarettes,” she said. “I was addicted very highly from the age of 11.” Sarah said her abusers would then tell her she owed them money and have to repay it. “They’d lock us in. Then, before you know it, there’s six, seven people turning up. You’re just outnumbered basically.” It took much longer for Sarah’s abusers to face up to the crimes they had committed. She spent years battling addiction which had led to a criminal record. “I was that horrified by what I’d been through that I was not gonna disclose it to anyone. I was actually going to take it to my grave,” she said. Sarah was in prison when police approached her suspecting she could be a victim. At first, still struggling with the shame of her abuse, she denied everything. But with more evidence pouring in, she eventually gave in and told them what happened to her. “My whole family was devastated,” she recalled. In 2020, she gave evidence against three men who were found guilty of 35 offences committed against her from the age of 13. Naim Kahn was sentenced to 24 years, Mohammed Nazir to 20 years and Raheem Ahmed to five years, although Sarah said she hoped these would be higher. Steps to Keep Your Child Safe From Grooming By Emma Kenny, true crime psychologist and parenting expert Encourage your child to share their day-to-day experiences. Ask who they talked to on the way home, what happened at the bus stop, and if anything made them feel uncomfortable. The more openly you talk, the more confident they’ll be to speak up if something feels off. If possible, arrange for your child to walk or travel with friends. Identify safe spaces along the route, trusted neighbours or shops where they can go if they feel threatened. Groomers often switch to online contact once they’ve made initial in-person connections. Monitor your child’s digital devices in a respectful but proactive way. Agree on ground rules for social media use, and encourage them to show you anything that makes them feel uneasy. If your parental alarm bells are going off, do not dismiss those feelings. Challenge unusual behaviour or new relationships gently but firmly. Seek professional advice if you suspect your child is at risk. If you have any evidence or strong suspicions that someone is grooming your child, contact the police immediately. Support and guidance from organisations like the NSPCC or Barnardo’s can also be invaluable in helping you navigate this distressing situation. “I may not be in prison now, but it feels like a prison sentence, day in and day out,” she said. In total, 21 men have been convicted in Oxford. When asked how many abusers are still free, ex police officer Simon Morton said there were “hundreds”. “The amount of people who are still out there… It was nationwide,” he said. “We got the core group, that doesn’t mean there isn’t more.” According to the BBC, reports into grooming nationally have asked why these crimes weren’t acted on sooner. In some parts of the country, such as Rotherham, police and councils were accused of failing to act for fear of being accused of being racist. However, a serious 2015 case review into the Oxford grooming gang found there was no evidence of that this was a factor. The review discovered numerous failings by Oxfordshire County Council and Thames Valley Police. Rachel brought a civil case against the council and received an out-of-court settlement, as well as an apology from the chief-constable of Thames Valley Police. Thames Valley Police told the BBC: “The impact of child sexual exploitation is lifelong… [It] works tirelessly to investigate these horrific crimes and bring offenders to justice.” It added: “It is never too late to come forward… [It] will listen… and do everything it can to support victims, survivors and their families.” Oxfordshire County Council said: “Protecting children remains [its] highest priority.” It accepted the findings of the serious case review and apologised for failings identified. It also said it has strengthened “safeguarding arrangements” and “improved multi-agency working” to ensure young people are heard. It has also enhanced “the identification and response to child sexual exploitation”, and said its children’s services had been rated good by Ofsted over the last 12 years. Comment now